Thursday, 31 August 2017

For those of you who like your musical recommendations in playlist-able Spotify form, on a bimonthly basis The Metaphorical Boat posts a selection of songs that we have been enjoying over the prior eight weeks or so, containing songs that we've written about, new songs that we haven't written about but are enjoying nonetheless, and a few older but fantastic tracks that are currently floating our Metaphorical Boat.

Below you can find our playlist of songs that we really enjoyed in July & August 2017. If you like what you hear, or just want another playlist to add to your growing list of playlists, then we really hope that you'll take the time to visit the playlist on Spotify and give it a follow. You never know, your new favourite song of all time could be somewhere on this playlist!

This month's playlist feature songs from established artists like Public Service Broadcasting, Kasabian, Beck, Bastille & Arcade Fire, songs from newer acts such as Confidence Man, Catholic Action, Kelsey Kerrigan, JR Green, Moon Taxi, The Breaks & Banfi, plus local acts like Beauty Sleep (the most recent guest of our podcast), Ciaran Lavery, MMODE, Hunkpapa, Terry Conlon, Emer Maguire, Catalan & Run To Earth . Lots of great music from lots of great people for your ear-based amusement.In addition, as of 2017 The Metaphorical Boat has started a rotating playlist of songs, which we will update on a regular basis. You've seen it on the sidebar of our blog, now you get to see it in a blog post as well. Hurrah for duplication!

As soon as we come across a new song that we like, it will automatically go to the top of this playlist, and we will remove a song from the playlist as soon as it has been on it for 2 months, so if you give it a follow, you will always have a fine conveyor belt of fantastic music courtesy of us at The Metaphorical Boat. You can find the playlist as it stands as of now below -

Monday, 28 August 2017

On each episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast, Christopher McBride, the Captain of The Metaphorical Boat, will sit down with one of his favourite musicians, and over a cup of a lovely caffeinated beverage and a bun or tray-bake of the artist's choosing (The Captain always goes for Battenberg. Always), chat through the artist's life, musical highlights, and most importantly, how many sugars they take.

Our guests on this episode of The Metaphorical Boat Podcast is Belfast trio Beauty Sleep. Cheylene, Ryan & Aimee from the band dropped by to talk about their music, being inspired by art, playing festivals, whether they really are a dream-pop band, and "The Seagull Incident".

Wednesday, 16 August 2017

There's nothing that warms our heart more than a sumptuous yet vulnerable slice of indie-pop, which is why we're so taken by "Neighbors", the debut single from Chicagoan Kathy Patino, who records under the name Girl K. The song, which is about overlooking personal needs when giving to others, is a slice of surfy indie-pop in the mold of Alvvays, with a euphoric chorus reminiscent of "Next of Kin". A rather lovely piece of noise.

"Neighbors" is taken from Girl K's debut album "Sunflower Court", which is due out in Autumn.

Saturday, 5 August 2017

This is a song that I first came across a couple of weeks ago when I reviewed it as part of Fresh on The Net's Fresh Faves. Given that it's one that I have consistently come back to since then, it was only proper to give it a mention here at The Metaphorical Boat.

The Breaks are a Burnley bred, Manchester based band, who for the time being are happy to remain anonymous*. They released their debut E.P a few weeks back, and the track that gained our love from the release was the wonderful "Honey", a shoegaze-y wall of blissful noise that encapsulates everything I love about the sub-genre, like My Bloody Valentine with a poppier heart. Plus, the drum intro reminds me of "Killing of a Flashboy" by Suede, which is never, ever a bad thing.

"Honey" is taken from the band's debut E.P, the cheerily titled "Misery", which is out now

*Although curiously, the music video for "Honey" does seem to feature people who may or may not be in the band, including one fellow playing the guitar.

About The Captain

So what can I tell you about myself? I am from Belfast. I enjoy writing about new music, which keeps me afloat. The Guardian once profiled this blog. I'm old enough to have experienced the Walkman without being retro, but not old enough to have used MySpace whilst it was still cool. I was nominated for the Sony Radio Golden Headphones Award in 2013. Caramacs and Battenberg are life affirming, and the moment some bright spark combines the two my life will be complete.